“He’s adapting” – Man City loanee substitution explained

When the Swans saw Flynn Downes ruled out of yesterday’s game through injury then it was a case of swapping Flynn for Fin as he gave Finley Burns, on loan from Manchester City, his second start for the Swans since his January switch from the Ethiad Stadium.

Whilst the first of those starts seemed to be an assured performance from Burns he was just one of many Swansea players yesterday who were more than a little out of sorts highlighted by the ease in which the Birmingham attack cut through the Swansea defence.

The Swans were certainly lucky not to find themselves at least two goals adrift at the break and it was therefore little surprise to see Russell Martin make some level of change with Latibeaudiere coming on for Burns.

The Swans boss had already been forced into a change in the minutes leading up to kick off when Jamie Paterson was a late withdrawal through injury meaning that Korey Smith started the game in his place.

But it was the half time change of Burns that drew a question in the post match interview – was his change a tactical or enforced one?

“Fin’s fine. He’s an 18-year-old boy living away from home on his own for the first time. He’s adapting, it’s just taking time. He’ll get another opportunity between now and the end of the season,” said Martin.

“I thought Joel Latibeaudiere was brilliant when he came on. That was a positive for us.”

The signing of Burns raised a few eyebrows in the January window given his arrival meant a loan departure Brandon Cooper but much made sense when it was revealed that the loan could easily turn into an 18 month one as opposed to the 6 months initially publicised.

However, for all the plaudits for his debut against Bristol City there were warning signs of a player who looked very much off the pace yesterday.   Not to overly criticise we take the point that Martin made about his personal situation and age and we should take much memory as well from the early signs that Marc Guehi showed when he arrived in SA1 and we all know how that turned out.

We can only hope the same for Fin.